


Hopeless

by nevernlandia



Category: Penny Dreadful (TV)
Genre: Jealousy, M/M, Not Happy, Prompt Fic, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-04
Updated: 2016-09-04
Packaged: 2018-08-12 23:12:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7952899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nevernlandia/pseuds/nevernlandia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Victor is spending too much time with Dorian Gray. Henry is worried.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hopeless

**Author's Note:**

> Another silly prompt fiction for one of my favourite pairs.
> 
> Beware: bad grammar, poorly written.
> 
> Also, I'm not happy with the ending so I might try to write a second part.

Victor was not at home again. Henry hesitated about waiting for him in the stairs, like the other people who was always sitting out there for some reason. They usually looked at him with unveiled distrust when not just open hate. He wasn’t afraid of them, though. Racism and cowardice run together most of the time and one thing is muttering insults at one’s back and another one confronting him. So he sat on the stairs ignoring the stares. Victor would probably be back soon. He had been spending too many afternoons at Dorian Gray’s house after both of them had lost Lily. Any of them had heard from her lately. With a bit of luck, Henry thought, she’d never come back. Bad news that woman was. Something dark inside her that Henry could easily have removed, but Victor had been weak. Too much in love to change her, or it maybe was just compassion. Henry knew a lot about darkness but too little about love and compassion to tell the difference. Anyway Victor had been sad and depressed and had sought some comfort in Dorian Gray who seemed to miss her too and had offered his shoulder for him to cry on. Henry cringed at the mental image that thought brought to his mind. Victor was too innocent to notice the hidden intentions of that man. Ah, but Henry knew too well. Again his own dark side had recognised the one in Gray.

Henry sighed in relief when he heard his friend’s steps coming closer. Elegantly dressed for a change after days and weeks of wearing that old dark coat which made him look smaller and thinner than he already was. He looked fine, Henry noticed. And he was sure Gray would have noticed that too.  
“Oh, here you are, old friend” his smile seemed to brighten the grim place. Happy again. Henry’s heart suddenly shrunk for some reason. Of course he had wanted his friend to be happy again but…  
“I’ve been waiting for a while. Where were you?” he said although he knew.  
“Having some tea with Dorian.”  
Dorian. No Mr. Gray anymore. Dorian.  
“You spend a lot of time with him” he tried not to sound bitter, or annoyed, or… jealous.  
“He’s been so kind having me all those days,” Victor said while opening his door. Both came in and Victor took off his coat. Henry looked at him in awe, he couldn’t help it. Victor looked gorgeous that afternoon with his black jacket, white shirt and a blue waistcoat that seemed to match his eyes. He did his best to stop staring at his friend that way. Not that Victor had even noticed him.  
“You look too elegant for just having a tea at a friend’s house” he said at last. Now that had sounded jealous. Damn. Shut up, Henry, he thought.  
But again Victor didn’t seem to acknowledge the meaning and the tone of his words. He smiled, flattered. “Oh, thank you. Dorian says that if I want to feel better inside, I must look better outside. And I was already feeling out of place going to his house with my worn clothes. I’m not as wealthy as he is, of course, so he offered me some of his. What do you think?” Victor opened his arms and made a gesture with his hands.  
Henry looked at him up and down again. “So, you are wearing his clothes?” he asked.  
“Just the waistcoat. He said it would look better on me.”  
Something inside Henry was starting to boil. However he bit his tongue and tried to smile. “He’s right I guess” he said. “It suits you. Although if you wanted new clothes, you could…” he stopped himself, suddenly ashamed.  
Victor raised an eyebrow. “Yes, Lord Hyde? I could what?”  
“I just think that you could have asked me first” Henry finished off not looking at him as if his offer was almost an insult.  
“What? Clothes? Money? You have already given me what I asked for. You are here helping me” Victor’s voice was now almost a whisper. “Don’t think I don’t appreciate what you’ve done for me, Henry.”  
“You seem closer to him now,” Henry did nothing to veil the trace of pain in his tone this time. He could not.  
“Well, you didn’t seem to want me talking about Lily anymore.”  
“I never said that!” Henry objected.  
“I saw it in your face. I always do, Henry. You are so easy to read, you hated her. You are glad she’s gone. I needed someone who could understand me better than you.”  
“Why? You think I’ve never been in love? Is that so? You think I can’t understand how it feels like to love someone who doesn’t love you back?”  
The passion in his voice made Victor look at him, his blue eyes wide open.  
“Henry…” he started not knowing too well what to say next.  
“How can you think I’m anything but hopelessly in love with you?”  
The room was silent for a while. Henry sighed as if relieved from something that had been eating him from the inside. Victor sat in one of the chairs, looking at the dirty floor.  
“So Dorian was right,” he finally said. “I’m good at reading you but not so good at understanding what I read. Dorian got it right.”  
“Your Dorian knows too much” Henry replied, annoyed. “Why have you both been talking about me?”  
“He’s not my Dorian,” Victor protested fast. “And we… well, he just asked. About you. I thought he was interested in you.”  
“He’s not. He wants you, Victor.”  
Victor shook his head and sad smile curved his lips. “No. Who would want me?”  
“I do.”  
“Stop saying that.” Victor didn’t sound angry or offended. Not even surprised. Just in denial as if the thought of someone loving him was so absurd it wasn’t worth to be considered seriously.  
Henry hated Lily more than ever for having left Victor’s heart in such condition. It was as if she had ripped it from his chest and stepped on it until it was nothing but dead meat. He also hated Dorian for having allowed her to do so and now he kept playing with Victor for God knows what reason when he had been the one taking Lily from him, something that both seemed to have forgotten too easily.  
“I can’t take back what I’ve said, I’m sorry,” Henry shook his head, his brown eyes still fixed on his friend’s pale face. “Now you know what I feel. And now I know you don’t feel the same.”  
Victor said nothing which was already an answer. The one Henry had been expecting.  
“Do you want me to leave?” he said in a low voice.  
Victor shook his head eagerly. “No, please. Don’t. You are my best friend,” he whispered. “You know how much I admire you and how much good your company has done to me.”  
Henry nodded silently and then he took a chair and sat close to him, taking one of his hands, carefully, almost shyly. Victor did not pull back.


End file.
